HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Posted: **Wed Jan 16, 2013 4:50 pm**

So my English is not that good, but what you did was,
-give not food before they became megalope
-do not change alots of water?
Did you give them 24u light?
did you hold them in the tank like curlz, of just in yars?
Did you used a airstone?
:crabbigsmile:

Posted: **Wed Jan 16, 2013 5:16 pm**

deesjebeesje wrote:So my English is not that good, but what you did was,
-give not food before they became megalope yes, the variabilis do not need to eat to develop to megalopa
-do not change alots of water? thats correct, in fact I did not change it at all until they had morphed into megalopa (6 days) and I left the dead in there too for the megalopa to eat. When I started feeding I started doing small water changes, mainly to suck up the eaten food.
Did you give them 24u light? No I went to 14 day and 10 night (approx)
did you hold them in the tank like curlz, of just in yars? My Kreisel tank was made of Jars inside a tank, If you look back to the first pages of this thread there are pictures
Did you used a airstone? yes

Posted: **Wed Jan 16, 2013 5:23 pm**

Curlz wrote:Lucky you @ eggs. We are waiting hardly for new eggs / larvae here in germany

feeding the little ones:
When my breedings started to leave water and explore land, they still got (de-)frozen mysis and (de-)frozen brine shrimps. And because I did not know when the megalopa will bury to metamorphose to LHC, I feed them with different fruits and watered crab pellets. Nearly same food the adults got.

The thread will be in our forum. http://www.landeinsiedlerkrebs-forum.de/
I will send you the link when I post the news about "successfull breeding of C. variabilis in Austalia"

if you could send larvae to germany *sigh*. It seems that variabilis are easier to breed, because of their short Zoea time. I hope you will have lots more mini "Aussie" Land Hermit Crab breedings in future

Thanks Curlz
What am I looking for when they molt to first crab? dig down I understand but what were the visible differences for yours?
& I count 10 out of the water now

Posted: **Wed Jan 16, 2013 6:11 pm**

Posted: **Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:22 am**

Thx, I was keeping the myn too in jars, only I changed every day water and feed them 2 times at day.

Posted: **Thu Jan 17, 2013 1:27 am**

Yes every species is different from what I gather

Were you successful? Deesjebeesje?

Posted: **Thu Jan 17, 2013 9:46 am**

Sooooo exciting! Thanks for sharing the pics of the little ones exploring!!!

Posted: **Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:28 am**

Nat_addicted to HC's wrote:

as you see, now they are almost transparent. And all claws and legs are straight. Mine could not close the shell opening before molting.

I can't really tell when they start to dig for their first molt. It took some days all came out of the water. And it took some days they were gone for molting. Some were walking through the tank several days. I would say it took some days to some weeks.

Mine getting darker and I could see more details. But it was a smooth change (sorry can't explain it very good)

May you check my webpage. The pictures are sorted. From "get out of water" up to now. You can see the change. In my opinion the molting 'season' starts with the (ugly) pictures with the one who got molting problems on the cuttlefish (Picture 15 was round about day 53 after hatching)

https://picasaweb.google.com/DasCurlz/N ... directlink

Posted: **Thu Jan 17, 2013 8:59 pm**

Thanks Curlz!
So yes they get more detail and not transparent anymore.
from Alan Harveys documentation on variabilis, first crab molt is generally 1-2 days and duration from out of water to first molt is 5-25 days. I will see soon enough

I have about 16 out of the water now, they have grouped together too.

Posted: **Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:10 pm**

Wow so 3 definitely have dug down today!!

Posted: **Fri Jan 18, 2013 12:39 am**

WOW with molts starting on ground now, how will you manage to keep track!?!
IF it were me, I would have to just pick one certain crab (at this stage that is) and follow their life long molting progress. With them so small there isn't really much way to tell them apart am I right?

This is so AWESOME!!!!

Posted: **Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:37 am**

Bridgitmac80 wrote:WOW with molts starting on ground now, how will you manage to keep track!?!
IF it were me, I would have to just pick one certain crab (at this stage that is) and follow their life long molting progress. With them so small there isn't really much way to tell them apart am I right?

This is so AWESOME!!!!

Im going to have to try and keep track of the group really as there is no way to single out one crab. I guess as I go I will have to get more technical

I really need to get in touch with a marine biologist who specialises in crustaceans.

Posted: **Fri Jan 18, 2013 1:48 am**

My goodness! You have literally made history lady

Congratulations!

Posted: **Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:03 am**

RockyGurly wrote:My goodness! You have literally made history lady Congratulations!

Thank you!! So much!! Wow I still cant quite believe we did it (we= you all & me!). Im looking forward to more of us being successful

Pics to come

Posted: **Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:35 am**

whooooooHooooooo!!!!!! babies officially on land and digging down to molt! i literally have tears in my eyes! thanks for making me cry at 6:30 in the morning! kidding, just happy

huge congrats to you and POST MORE PICS OF THE BABIES (please) !!!!! you know we're all crazy here and can never get enough pics

HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Zoea *successful captive breeding & rearing of C. variabilis

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